Political Ad of the Week: Known Unknowns

Mitt Romney isn’t known for getting very specific about his policy proposals, at least not during this campaign. Obama’s for it, he’s against it, Obama’s bad, he’ll be good—and that’s really all you need to know. In this, admittedly, he is like many politicians, avoiding messy details that could be used against them, but Romney seems to be more prone to it than most.

There are some downsides to being vague, though. In the ad that we’re featuring from last week, we see one of them: President Obama’s campaign doesn’t have to know how the middle class would be affected by Romney’s tax plan in order to scare voters with it—just knowing how the middle class could be affected is plenty. (John Cassidy has written about what’s in Romney’s tax plan, and why the Obama campaign can make these assertions.)

You can also watch this ad, and others, at Political Scene, our hub for coverage of the 2012 election.

Alex Koppelman was a politics editor for newyorker.com from from 2011 to 2013.